Queen Victoria

Queen Victoria (24 May 1819-22 January 1901) was Queen of the United Kingdom from 20 June 1837 to 22 January 1901, succeeding William IV and preceding Edward VII. Victoria's reign was known as the "Victorian era", a period of industrial, cultural, political, scientific, and military change within Britain, and one marked by a great expansion of the British Empire.

Biography
Victoria was born in London, England on 24 May 1819, the daughter of Prince Edward, Duke of Kent and Strathearn and Princess Victoria of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld. Both of William IV's daughters had died soon after birth, leaving him with no immediate successor. Of the King's younger brothers, none of the next three in line had lived long enough to ascend the throne, and only the late Duke of Kent had a legitimate surviving child. So it was that, on William's death in June 1837, his young niece, Victoria, came to the throne. She was ill-prepared in many ways for the responsibility of monarchy. Hers had been an isolated childhood: she had been closely protected - possibly overprotected, many felt - by a manipulative mother, the Duchess of Kent, from whom she was eventually to become estranged. There had been some question that the Duchess might become regent, acting on behalf of her daughter, but Victoria had just reached the age of 18 when her uncle died, and Lord Melbourne, the Whig Prime Minister, took the new Queen under his wing, winning her eternal gratitude and affection in return.

Queenly bearing
Britain's longest-serving monarch felt a strong sense of regal entitlement from the start. While in many ways Victoria is rightly taken as a model of the modern constitutional monarch, she had a distinctly despotic streak at the same time. Her strong favoritism for Melbourne and the Whigs was quickly established, and she took very little trouble to conceal it. Tory Prime Minister Robert Peel, having defeated Melbourne, resigned in 1839 when she refused to go along with changes he proposed to her royal household (This despite the fact that the apointment of new personnel was at the time customary with incoming administrations). Far from feeling embarrassment, Victoira was only too delighted when Peel's resignation cleared the way for Melbourne and the Whigs to return to office. However, her hostility towards Tory governments was only a short-lived feature of her reign.

Wife and mother
Queen she may have been, but as an unmarried woman Victoria still had to live with her mother, according ot the convention of the time, and the Duchess still bullied her tlb he way she had when she was a girl. This in part may have driven her in her desire to marry Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, for this relationship does not appear to have been a case of love at first sight. The attachment became legendary, however, once the Queen fell madly in love with her Prince Consort, who also becam ehe rkey adviser. They had nine children, who were destined to make matrimonial connections with all the leading royal houses of Europe.

Victorian morality
The idea of a "royal family" became celebrated at this time. The sanctity of the home and the joys of domestic life were widely idealized; sober respectability was much prized. Traditionally, the ruling class had been conspicuously lax in their sexual conduct: if Victoria's uncles had been short of legitimate children, they had produced plenty on the "wrong side of the blanket". However, "Victorian morality" had no better exemplar than the Queen herself. A devoted (even passionate) wife to Albert, she was seriously prudish and intolerant of anything that smacked of sexual license.

Albert and after
As her Prince Consort, Albert further developed the role of the monarchy in promoting all-round good works. He was an important patron of the Great Exhibition in 1851, and encouraged the Queen's own close identification with the armed forces, underlined by her introduction of the Victoria Cross for valor in 1856 against the background of the Crimean War. However, tragedy struck in December 1861, when Albert died from typhoid fever while at Windsor Castle. He was only 42. The Queen was left desolate. She wore mourning from that time on, and shunned public appearances where she could. While she always met minimum requirements, her failure to go further caused public muttering (gossip about her attachment to her Balmoral gillie John Brown did not help). There was some serious anger at what some saw as a dereliction of duty. On the other hand, her retreat from the political front line was welcomed by those in government. She slipped back into the largely ceremonial role that is now expected of monarchy.

Imperial monarch
In the latter part of her reign, Victoria regained her popularity as the symbol for a successful and ever-more powerful imperial nation. More experienced now, she also regained the confidence to act on her own initiative. As a result, she was a much greater influence over (and milestone for) senior politicians). In 1876, Tory Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli arranged for her to be given the additional title of Empress of India. Whatever Victoria's personal flaws, they were rendered insignificant by her sheer longevity as reigning monarch. There was a huge outpouring of joy at her Diamond Jubilee in 1897. She died at Osborne House in 1901 at the age of 81.